Lessons Learned

If there are three lessons we have taken from this year they are:

1. Planning is essential, but being agile is even more critical

If 2020 has shown us anything it is that agility is the elastic that allows our businesses to adapt to modern day life. Being able to either swap production from luxury goods to hand sanitisers (in the case of many of the beauty companies including Estee Lauder and L’Oreal), or use empty stadiums to help vaccinate people (as we are now seeing happen with The O2) is the way we remain relevant to our customers. It might mean we need to ditch the long term plan for a while, or maybe abandon it altogether for another pathway but it means survival. Companies understanding that their business strategies might not be linear are the ones that will, and have already, succeeded in the brave new world of 2021.

2. Being honest and transparent is the way to generate understanding

One of the biggest challenges that many businesses had to face last year was communicating to both their teams and their customers that things weren’t going well. Building a communication strategy based on good news, or positive benefits, is how we normally present our brands. Having to communicate bad news, that might mean job losses, changes in production, or even a sense of admitting failure is hard. However, the tides are turning with many now looking at failure as a way of learning about success – see Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail series of podcasts featuring some of the most successful people today. Brand communication is now not just about the end result, but about the journey of how you got there, warts and all. Explaining to your team and your customers the reasons for change, helps them be more empathic to your situation, and with empathy comes engagement and a sense of loyalty. Look at the rise in sales and goodwill towards small, independent shops that have had to close over and over again due to the pandemic tiers and lockdowns to show that customers are ready to help brands they like weather the storms.

3. Fast behaviour change is possible

Many of our communications programmes here at Antelope support organisational change and with organisational change comes the need for teams to alter their behaviour. Change management has always been seen as one of the hardest adoption policies, especially in larger organisations that have legacy processes and systems. If there is one thing the Covid pandemic has shown us it is how people can change their behaviour fast, when communication is clear and they understand the reasons, and engage with the rationale. This is the key to communications – to be heavily invested in it and to have clear, concise principles. Although much of the comms campaigns around Coronavirus have differed in the specifics, the messaging of Hands, Face, Space remains simple and clear alongside the two key actions of social distancing and washing your hands.

We hope 2021 is full of hope and brighter times ahead both personally and professionally. Whatever your plans are, and however off route you have to divert those plans, communicating with others – be it your team, clients or potential clients – will mean that you are not alone in your journey.

Photo by Nils Stahl on Unsplash with thanks.